Kenneth Branagh in Talks to Direct Agatha Christie’s ‘Murder on the Orient Express’

GKCfan

Nothing's official yet, but take a look:

http://www.thewrap.com/kenneth-branagh-in-talks-to-direct-agatha-christie-murder-on-the-orient-express-exclusive/

Tommy_A_Jones

Do We really need another one, why not pick another of the Stories? I suppose it is true what they say Money Talks and it aint got a Conscimce

taliavishay-arbel

Seems a huge risk to me. The old movie was star-studded and magnificent. competing with it is a pretty tough task. 

tudes

It would be nice if the story choseen was The Murder of Roger Acrokoyd, for instance. As
@taliaavishay-arbel has just said, the old movie is superbe.There's no need of a new movie!

ChristieFanForLife

@Tommy:

Seems a huge risk to me. The old movie was star-studded and magnificent. competing with it is a pretty tough task. 

Even the adaptation with David Suchet doesn't even hold a candle to the original movie. How about they work on Agatha Christie's other books that doesn't feature Poirot such as Endless Night, Crooked House, Ordeal By Innocence or a faithful adaptation of Sparkling Cyanide which I still have yet to see.

ChristieFanForLife

Do We really need another one, why not pick another of the Stories? I suppose it is true what they say Money Talks and it aint got a Conscimce

I think Kenneth Branagh did a fabulous job with his film adaptation of Hamlet but to do a movie of Murder On The Orient Express, which has already been done before, I'm a bit leery of that. The original movie from the '70s is still better and I don't think a new version would be very good. Just look at how awful the David Suchet version was and that was just a TV film which featured the definitive Poirot ever graced upon the screen! You would think the team would have done a better job then what they did with it. I think if Suchet worked on Orient Express in the' 90s when the series was at it's peak, I think the team would have done a fine job.

tudes

ChristieFanForLife said:

Do We really need another one, why not pick another of the Stories? I suppose it is true what they say Money Talks and it aint got a Conscimce

I think Kenneth Branagh did a fabulous job with his film adaptation of Hamlet but to do a movie of Murder On The Orient Express, which has already been done before, I'm a bit leery of that. The original movie from the '70s is still better and I don't think a new version would be very good. Just look at how awful the David Suchet version was and that was just a TV film which featured the definitive Poirot ever graced upon the screen! You would think the team would have done a better job then what they did with it. I think if Suchet worked on Orient Express in the' 90s when the series was at it's peak, I think the team would have done a fine job.

I can't agree more, @ChristieFanForLife! That movie was a masterpiece! Very well done, the cast was excellent. For previous experiences, I don't think a great idea. And as you said, David Suchet's version, although he is Poirot, was boring to death!
They could pick another story, even a Poirot's one (David Suchet as Poirot, of course), but not this one.

Anubis

While I too generally disdain remakes, they are not always bad. Remember The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, which was the 3rd film version of that story. Sometimes, advances in technology make it desirable to film a newer version. I expect many silent films were redone in sound. Too, the 1975 version of MOTOE is now 40 years old, and many of the audience who see the new version will never have seen the "perfect" version we know. And, if it is successful, it might inspire new fans of AC. I had been going to suggest that ATTWN would be a good one to remake, but nowadays that idea has been do so often, and that it might bore the audience. For a blockbuster movie, which I assume is what the producers want, you'd need something with a lot of suspects. Death on the Nile has already been done, so what about The ABC Murders or Murder in Mesopotamia.

GKCfan

Several months ago, there was a Japanese version of "Murder on the Orient Express" on Japanese TV.  It got great reviews.  It was a two-part event.  The first part was a pretty faithful version of the book set in Japan.  The second part told the story again, this time from the perspective of the guilty party.  You all should know that nobody is a bigger Christie purist than I am, but I am intrigued about adaptations from the killer's perspective.

tudes

In this case, @GKCfan, I mean, an adaption from the killer's perspective, wouldn't be more interesting a dramatisation of Roger Ackroyd, for example? I think it could be more faithful to the story than Orient Express.

Anubis

What a good idea to have a first part that is faithful to the book and a second part from the culprit's perspective. It is like reading the book a second time for new information. I've always considered MORA one of the great "unfilmables", because it is difficult to film something from the culprit's perspective without revealing who the culprit is. I hope I do not go off topic if I mention Malice Aforethought by Francis Iles. In this mystery, you know from the first paragraph who the murderer is; the mystery centres on if, and if so how, he will be caught. I believe this was filmed in England for TV in the 1970s starring Hwyel Bennett.

tudes

@Anubis, I agree about MORA. But I think if anyone gets it, it will be an excellent movie.
I know there's an adaption, but it's very weak and boring!

GKCfan

(SPOILERS)

tudes and Anubis, I totally agree that MORA is a perfect choice to be filmed from that perspective.  There are many ways to go about it.  Would the film be made by breaking the fourth wall (like in House of Cards) and having the narrator speak to the audience?

I really like Malice Aforethought a lot.  I haven't seen the 1970's version, but there's a much more recent adaptation that isn't bad, but doesn't quite capture the atmosphere of the book.  The Columbo mysteries are a classic example of the "inverted mysteries" we're talking about here.

Griselda

If Crooked House were to be filmed, you could do the version with the sequence change I suggested before, eg. so SPOILER ALERT first Nanny drinks the drugged milk, and then the accident with the stable door occurs, and we all think the child has been done it, but its actually a dummy gone wrong, and, unintentionally, the child has killed herself. SPOILER ALERT. Then the notebook will be found, it will become clear that she was the murderer, and then the directors could proceed to animate flashbacks recapping the tale using her words, dramatising her petulance, and giving the story a sort of innocent 'she didn't appreciate the enormity of what she was doing' perspective. The culprit would be judged to be Nature and the devilish way it can put a superannuated brain inside the harmless body of a child. Modern sensibilities would be appeased, and you wouldn't have the difficulty of a rather 'horror book' seeming film with an evil child behind the violence.

Anubis

GKCfan and tudes: Good idea about the 4th wall. That would definitely work. Your comments have inspired me to ponder. What if MORA were filmed as an inquest, all from the point of view of the culprit (who the audience does not know is the culprit, but considers to be the reliable witness) giving evidence - it could be 3 parts: Do you swear to tell the truth? (In this part, the witness would testify as to what he said to others and what others said to him. All of this would be verified by the others, and the witness is complacent and confident.) the whole truth? (In this part, the coroner would raise items that the witness must explain without corroboration from others. Now he's getting a little more anxious, but nothing to worry about.) And nothing but the truth? (In this part, the coroner brings home to the witness that in fact he must have done the crime.) We end with the culprit in the cell, awaiting his fate. While I'm being preposterous: what is the one thing that is never in question in a murder mystery? The detective. For an unexpected surprise, you could remove HP from the film version and have the detective be someone else entirely. AC herself set a precedent for this. For her dramatization of Appointment with Death, she changed the culprit and removed HP from the story. Perhaps she didn't want any HP sauce.

Anubis

P.S. The 1970's version of Malice Aforethought is available on youtube.

Tommy_A_Jones

ChristieFanFor Life of the Suggestions you have made only Crooked House Has NOT been made into a Film fpr the Cinema, If The BBC weren't doing a version of ATTWN I would say we should have another Film verson as it is time we had one, or maybe Hercule Poirot's Christmas or A Murder Is Announced perhaps even Death Comes As The Emd or Why Didn't They Ask Evans or one of the Bundle books but not MOTOE, Too risky.

Tommy_A_Jones

It occurred to me last night while I was trying to go to sleep when not thinking of the bookI am reading (Flowers For His Funeral by Ann Granger, I really recommend her Mitchell and Markby Books) Brannagh should turn his skills to Directing Cards On The Table as a lot of Fans (me included) fans love the book and a lot of fans (me included) hated what ITV did, I personally would be over the moon.

MarcWatson-Gray

Maybe MORA would not be that difficult to film from the culprits perspective **SPOILER ALERT**

After all Mrs Christie wrote it from the culprit's perspective without giving the game away...

I agree with you though tudes,This was would make for a great movie.

Is the reason for a propose remake of MOTOE based on sales of the book that leads one to believe that the public would "lap it up" ?

 

Tommy_A_Jones

ITV went wrong with The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd by making it plain Poirot was reading a Journal, If you take that out of the Story and just Film it the way Agatha Christie Wrote it it would be an excellent one for Mr Brannagh to do.

3rdGirl

I always think that another perspective can be a good thing and would enjoy watching anything directed by Branagh.  I know everyone likes the 'original' film the best, however I really enjoyed the Suchet Orient Express. The cast was fantastic for a telemovie (Hugh Bonneville, Jessica Chastain, Barbaray Hershey....), one of the best casts they have assembled. The character development of Poirot entering his final years and wrestling with his conscience was excellent, and it was stunningly filmed. I enjoyed it's bleakness and darkness. It was an interesting adaptation and even though I knew how the story ended, I was still enraptured and torn over the ending.

@GCK ..the Japanese one sounds very interesting indeed. I shall keep an eye out for a subtitled version.

http://aramajapan.com/news/tvmovie/dramas/star-studded-cast-for-murder-on-the-orient-express-sp-drama/8953/

Tommy_A_Jones

I don't think a new perspective is always a good Idea, think of the ITV Marple series which has Episodes that a lot of us dislike although I do like some of them, I disagree with you about the Suchet version of Murder On The Orient Express, I realise that they had to do something different with The Adaptation but the Denoumont was rushed and one of the Suspects was Omitted and one of the Characters was made a Murderer where they weren't n the book. 

taliavishay-arbel

This idea of a multiple point of view has been done very successfuly with one of Dicken's Novels - Little Dorrit. It worked very well. Going back to Murder on the Orient Express - the original movie was so magnificent, I can't imagine even bothering to watch another version, even though I really admire Branagh.

Griselda

I think that at the heart of the problem for directors is the fact that most people who would watch period dramas - and bearing in mind that we know that huge sections of the under 30s never watch tv at all - will know, ' Oh that is the novel/film in which loads of people SPOILER ALERT do the stabbing one after the other. It's got something to do with the Lindburg baby....and revenge.' The natural progression of the story would have a sizeable chunk of action occurring when no one knows the victim is a SPOILER nasty piece of goods ( to use an Agathaism), and then, ' Oh my goodness it's him - but who could have it in for him on this train ..... none of the family are here - are they? But a director has to work with the fact that everybody know the outcome. How do they do Shakespeare with this problem in mind? Shakespeare even has the Chorus tell the audience the Romeo and Juliet outcome - so how did he make it interesting? Characterisation, I'd say. The director has to get that dialogue perfect, and work on the hidden clues between the characters to half suggest they know one another - like the chauffeur and the real army batman sharing a cabin. I wouldn't say that that aspect has always been done brilliantly.

taliavishay-arbel

Griselda, you raise a really interesting problem. Not only are you correct (and insightful!) about a director dealing with the viewer's knowing the story with a period book, but when it is a detective story, the problem is much worse - because part of the mental/emotional process of reading a detective story is being fooled, suspecting - and clearing - different suspects, being led in different directions, so that when the solution finally comes we get to it with all the background of our different preconceptions. Of course, with a book as well known as MOTOE that is impossible, which means in effect that the screenwriter and director HAVE to change the story somewhat in order to make the viewer's progression interesting and satisfying - and then probably a lot of viewers will be mad that they changed the story. 

Griselda

Thank you, Tali. It is a tall order for the director. In your view, what might satisfy our interest as viewers, whilst not digressing too much from the central themes? You have so much experience of reading other crime writers, and comparing conventions, do you have a feeling for whether it would work to be exploring the scenes which weren't detailed in the book, in which one or two of the characters persuade all the others to join them: which characters were scared, which arguments won out: how was it kept a secret? The story who could still be regaled as a whodunnit, but there would be flashbacks would be mysterious to those who don't know the story, and interesting to those who do. I think one SPOILER ALERT stab must have finished off the gangster. Perhpaps, in a fresh dramatisation, it could be that one person killed him, and the other stabs were symbolic. But still, there would be precious little suspense for those viewers who know the ending. I just don't know how the difficulties could be effectively overcome.

taliavishay-arbel

Griselda, I love your Ideas! I only hope Kenneth Branagh reads this thread - the idea of flashbacks which hint but don't give away the plot is brilliant, and could add a human touch, as you suggest - showing the feelings of the various characters before the act. 

Tommy_A_Jones

True Flash backs would be brilliant as they were not done in the Suchet or Finney version. 

Griselda

I'm glad you like the idea, Tali and Tommy. Sometimes I think of the feelings of the characters and realise I have imagined it because we were not told the whole story of how Miss Debenham organised it all. With some good actors it could work well.

MarcWatson-Gray

It is a difficult tight rope to walk.Pleasing the die hard book readers and engaging enough new viewers to make the project worthwhile.At what point do changes make it so unrecognisable that it is no longer what it started out to be.

taliavishay-arbel

In my experience, a movie adaptation is never just what the book was (except maybe "pride and prejudice, with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle - almost exactly like the book). But sometimes the differences do not detract, and make for a better movie (as in some of the Joan Hickson Miss Marples, or in Emma Thompson's "Sense and Sensibility"). However, sometimes the adaptations are really annoying - when they change the characters, switch villians and redo the whole story (e.g. the new "Sleeping Curtain".) I feel that some changes are acceptable - and after all, even in the classic MOTOE movie, they did add the flashes from the time of the kidnapping before the Titles, thus letting the viewer know, much earlier than in the book, that whatever would happen would be connected to the kidnapping - and nobody complained about it!